Michigan is short of clerks to oversee elections, but harassment and workload turn people away
Sharon Tyler stepped down as Berrien County clerk last year. After 12 years in the role, she was tired of missing out on family events and time with her grandchildren because of a growing workload.
The death threats didn’t help.
When her grandchildren asked to have a sleepover, “I’d have to say, ‘No, sorry, I’ve got early voting. I’ve got an election,’” she recalled. “I missed out on a lot of it.”
In Michigan, local clerks have a lot of responsibilities. They manage elections, issue marriage certificates, handle requests for public documents, and numerous other duties. And just the election part has grown in recent years. Changes to the state Constitution to expand voting rights — like Prop 3 in 2018 and Prop 2 in 2022 — have increased the amount of work clerks have to put into elections. They now have to stand ready to register voters on Election Day, run at least eight days of early voting, and manage the distribution of absentee ballots to a growing list of voters every election cycle.
The growing demands of the job — combined with the low pay people have come to associate with civic jobs — are discouraging new recruits, limiting the pipeline of talent for a critical role in the democratic process. In 2024, research found, 90% of clerk races in Michigan had only one candidate, and some small communities struggled to find anyone to run. .....................(more)
https://michiganadvance.com/2025/03/10/michigan-is-short-of-clerks-to-oversee-elections-but-harassment-and-workload-turn-people-away/